Here is a link to the US Department of Agriculture's food nutrient database. You can look up most foods and get tons more detail than you cna ever use. It's downloadable to your computer so you don't have to be online to use it.

I looked up home prepared chicken stock and it lists 86 calories per cup and 2.88 grams of fat.

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"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." -Carl Sagan

I'm starting to do some calorie counting, and am having a hard time getting a fix on calories per cup of of homemade chicken stock. My searching has brought up some very wide ranging results.

My chicken stock recipe is as plain jane as one might expect. About 1 1/2 gallons water, one 6 pound whole chicken (meat removed and reserved when cooked - bones and parts added back to stock), celery, carrots, onions, bay leaves, thyme, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 30 crushed peppercorns. 5 hour simmer. Finished stock is strained, cooled overnight, defatted next day, then frozen in 2 cup portions. Target yield is about 1 gallon, but if I'm off on the simmer the yield can range from a high of 1 1/4 gallons to a low of 3/4 gallon.

What are the best guesstimates on calories per cup for homemade chicken stock?

That's a lot like how I make stock but seems like a lot of pepper and I like to reduce more.

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Originally Posted by Andy M.

Boiling the stock causes fat to emulsify and disperse into the stock rather than being available to rise to the surface for removal.

A strategy for preventing rapid boil is important because I usually make stock while watching sports. The requisite cheering and imbibing distract from the stockpot. I use a probe thermometer with the alarm set at 190F to restrict the temperature.

I've tried, unsuccessfully, to find the caloric and nutritional values of stock and collagen. Please keep us appraised of your progress.

I made chicken soup recently. I removed all the skin from the chicken and rinsed the chicken. Placed it in a pot and covered with water. I brought it to an easy boil and turned the heat to medium/low, covered and let it cook for an hour. Perfect! (if I do say so...)

At this point, I would call the liquid chicken juice. I removed the chicken, boned it, chopped the chicken and only returned the chicken to the pot. (THIS WAS MADE FOR A VERY ILL PERSON...SO NOTHING ELSE WAS ADDED)

The leftover chicken soup was refrigerated and the following day the juice was still liquid.

When you leave the skin and fat on the chicken, it becomes incorporated with the liquid. Some of the fat will rise to the surface when cold, but the liquid will gel and become a gelatin type substance because gelatin is made from animal fat.

The chicken soup that I made has 80 to 110 calories per serving.

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Everything we consume, except water, has some caloric content. The reason skin is calorie rich is because of the subcutaneous fat hidden under it. When you remove the skin, you remove much of the fat.

As to fat in the liquid, unless you have added and emulsifying agent to the stock, the majority of the fat will seperate from the liquid, just as cream seperates from non-homogonized milk. It will float to the surface and harden, especially if the stock is chilled in the fridge. It can then be lifted off of the gelled stock (aspic).

And yes, the strained and defated stock is very nourishing and very low in calories. Most of the calcories will come from the veggies that you cooked. That wonderful carrot flavor is actually sugar. Root veggies, such as turnips, beets, carrots, etc. store their energy as sugars in the root. In fact, it wasn't until sugar beets were found as an alternative to cane sugar that susgar was available to consumers at a reasonable price.

So things like onion, and carrots do add carbohydrates to the stock. The celery, it is also very low in caloric content.

The stock is full of vitamins and mineral content as you have leached the marrow, calcium, and collagen from the chicken carcass. The collagen is what causes the stock to gell, and is a cousin to protien.

So eat your chicken soup knowing that you are indeed ingesting high quality nutrition. Include whole grain foods and colorful veggies in you meals as well and you have the beginnings of a great diet.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

__________________“No amount of success outside the home can compensate for failure within the home…"

I would have to guess that there are many other parts of the diet that could have calories removed/examined than homemade stock. There is a lot of tummy satisfaction in it, as the OP mentioned, that will lead to a feeling of satiation. So, I think I would use this, and not worry too much about it.
One thing my doctor suggested with regard to weight loss was a per cent as a goal (rather than saying 50 lbs, for example). Set a goal of losing 5%-10% of your weight in a realistic manner. Then if need be, do it again.
Just a thought. 'o)

I made chicken soup recently. I removed all the skin from the chicken and rinsed the chicken. Placed it in a pot and covered with water. I brought it to an easy boil and turned the heat to medium/low, covered and let it cook for an hour. Perfect! (if I do say so...)

At this point, I would call the liquid chicken juice. I removed the chicken, boned it, chopped the chicken and only returned the chicken to the pot. (THIS WAS MADE FOR A VERY ILL PERSON...SO NOTHING ELSE WAS ADDED)

The leftover chicken soup was refrigerated and the following day the juice was still liquid.

When you leave the skin and fat on the chicken, it becomes incorporated with the liquid. Some of the fat will rise to the surface when cold, but the liquid will gel and become a gelatin type substance because gelatin is made from animal fat.

The chicken soup that I made has 80 to 110 calories per serving.

Actually, that gel is from the marrow of the bones, which is what aspic was made from before the days of Knox gelatine. The fat you'd find would look like margarine.

Here is a link to the US Department of Agriculture's food nutrient database.

Very interesting.

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That's a lot like how I make stock but seems like a lot of pepper and I like to reduce more.

Yes, it's more pepper than probably any recipe calls for. I often double or trouble quantities of some spices or key flavorings, as many recipes don't call for enough IMO.

I look for a liquid reduction of about 1/3 (I aim to reduce 1 1/2 gallon initial water to a yield of 1 gallon of 'stock'. Actually, though I'm calling it 'stock', I'm aiming for a rich, strong broth. (I classify 'broth' as less intense (less reduced) than 'stock', which I would typically then need to cut/dillute when used.

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A strategy for preventing rapid boil is important because I usually make stock while watching sports.

I just take a quick peek every thirty minutes or so. I've made this so many times, that I get it dialed in pretty well the first hour or so.

- Remove fat and skin -
I don't see myself doing this. Mostly I want to gauge as accurately as possible how much to allow in the calorie assessment for the existing recipe.

My searching has found quotes ranging from 25 to 200 calories per cup. The consensus here seems to be that the majority of the fat will rise and set while cooling; which is then easily removed. I've decided, for now, as my best guess, to call it 100 calories per cup. I hold a simmer/light boil for five hours, so am trying to allow, as several have suggested, for the fat that might render into the 'broth/stock'. I wish that I could feel surer of this guesstimate though.

Nevertheless, two cups of very rich broth, at 200 total calories, is a very filling and satisfying meal and calorically cheap.

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Actually, that gel is from the marrow of the bones, which is what aspic was made from before the days of Knox gelatine. The fat you'd find would look like margarine.

Interesting, and adds to my hope that 100 calories is a fair number to settle on for now.